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52 Week Smartphone Challenge: Week 16: Shadow

I was making my breakfast this morning and noticed, like every sunny morning this week, the shadows created by the morning sunlight coming over the trees through the kitchen window. But this time I paid attention for a while watching. Just watching. But soon had my Fujifilm X-T2 in hand experimenting with light and shadow. You can see my results in Day 28 of my Isolation Photo Project post.

It was later, after sitting down with my mug of coffee to catch up on comments via WordPress Reader, that I realised that I had not yet created any images for the weekly smartphone challenge.

It’s a shadow self-portrait with me standing in front of the sliding door in our living room. It was captured in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Amy used Hipstamatic to create her shadowy image.

Submitted for my 52 Week Smartphone Challenge.

First Impressions of First Impressions: Fujifilm X-T4

First Impressions: Fujifilm X-T4 (FUJILOVE MAGAZINE)

The X-T4 is the realized iteration of Fujifim’s two year dream to create the ultimate APS-C hybrid video-still mirrorless camera. This is the most competent digital camera Fujifilm has made thus far, and perhaps the best mirrorless camera on the market today, regardless of sensor size or price. Yes, the X-T4 is that good.

I would love to see images of the X-T4 without the big bulky battery pack.

The wait is finally over, but is the X-T4 exactly what we were all waiting for?

That's a loaded question. I don't think there is a collective "we" that have the same wants and needs in a camera.

What I see with the X-T4 is that Fujifilm has added a bunch of features - IBIS, NP-W235 battery system, 40FPS 1080P, Film Simulation Eterna Bleach Bypass, etc. — that will not make a difference to my photography, while not addressing the things - customised white balance settings for film simulation recipes, erase both memory cards at once - that will.

In the hand the X-T4 is definitely bigger and heavier than the X-T3, but considering the extra features (IBIS, new shutter mech, articulating screen, new battery) 68g more weight is a very small price to pay.

The full-frame Sony A7R IV weighs approximately 665 g with a battery and memory card included.

The X-T3 at 539g (including battery and SD memory card) was bigger and heavier than the X-T2 at 507g (including battery and memory card) which was bigger and heavier than the X-T1 at 440g (including battery and memory card). The X-T4 is 607g (including battery and SD memory card). That's 167g heavier than the X-T1. So overall the camera is getting bigger and heavier. Soon, we won't be able to call this lightweight.

Are many photographers ready to "upgrade" to the X-T4 and four new Fujifilm NP-W235 batteries?

I’m sure this screen will be the biggest controversy on the X-T4, especially for stills photographers who don’t need or want a front articulating screen.

Yep. I hated the fully articulating screen on my Nikon D5200.

Pretty soon the X Series will look like this.

The point I am hoping to make is that the statement that “considering the extra features ... 68g more weight is a very small price to pay” is a statement that keeps being made each time the camera gets bigger and heavier.

I could just as easily state that “considering the features of the full-frame Sony A7R IV to the APS-CFujifilm X-T2, 58g more weight is a very small price to pay”. As the X-T line gets fat, many photographer may make that argument in their heads and skip Fuji.

iPad Memories

Why I won't buy an Ipad: ten years later (boingboing.net)

… with the iPad, it seems like Apple's model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of "that's too complicated for my mom" (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers).

I think Cory is a bit harsh. I've had every version of the iPad since my first iPad (3G) in April 2010, and it continues to be useful as a mid-way point (bicycle) between my iMac (truck) and iPhone (sports car). In fact, I had an iPad four years before I bought my first iPhone. While there are certain things that frustrate me about iPadOS, most precisley the insanity of gestures and multitasking, I love my iPad Pro and I expect I may always own one.